


surprise visitors

by clickingkeyboards



Category: Murder Most Unladylike Series - Robin Stevens
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Surprises, This Is STUPID
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-27
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-13 05:41:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29023638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clickingkeyboards/pseuds/clickingkeyboards
Summary: Hazel and her dormmates are getting ready for their Easter holidays in 1936, only for a surprise to be sprung on her and Lavinia when some First Formers scurry up the stairs, wide-eyed at the information that two of the older girls have some 'male visitors'.
Relationships: Alexander Arcady/Hazel Wong, George Mukherjee/Lavinia Temple
Comments: 3
Kudos: 23





	surprise visitors

Amina is standing at the door of our dormitory, leaning against the doorframe and showing off her newest hat. “Glorious, isn’t it?” she says, turning it around admiringly with nimble fingers. “It’s very twenties. Parisian, too. My eldest sister sent it to me as an early gift for  _ Lailat al Miraj _ .”

“It’s lovely!” Kitty compliments, getting up from her bed and walking over to admire it. “The flowers are  _ very _ current, aren’t they?”

From where she’s forcing a brush through her hair with worrying amounts of force, Lavinia says, “You’ll knock Daisy for six if you wear that when you see her.”

We all fall about laughing and I say, “Oh, she’ll be beside herself. She’s always bowled over by Amina in pretty clothes.”

Feeling slightly guilty for laughing so much about Daisy’s sudden inability to walk, think, and talk when faced with Amina looking particularly lovely, I turn to Beanie. She is chewing on the end of her plait while determinedly reading her way through a book that her mother gifted to her before she passed. She has managed twenty entire pages since the parcel arrived at the start of the week, and she is hoping to have finished it by the end of the Easter holidays. Kitty has promised to read her some of it, to make it easier. “Is it good so far, Beanie?”

She nods fiercely. “Very! The fairy is about to give them their very first wish. I bet that they’ll be silly with it. We would be.”

I laugh at the very idea of my friends and I coming across a sand fairy, and reply, “We’d be  _ awful _ .”

Kitty and Amina are no longer looking at the hat, instead peering out into the corridor at the squealing commotion of some starry-eyed First Formers. “See here, what is it?” Kitty rudely asks a pair of them, and Amina repeats it rather more kindly.

“There are some  _ male visitors _ outside, for some older girls!” one of them — Florrie — says, giddy as she clings onto the other’s arm. “Matron is interrogating them.”

Lavinia mimes throwing up and I try to muffle my laugh in my hand.

“Why is Matron interrogating them?” Amina asks with a laugh. I briefly picture old and strict Matron dressed in the same clothes that our Inspector Priestley wears, and I reach for my notebook to jot it down so I can tell Daisy. We both keep notebooks nowadays, and we write down thoughts that we would like to tell the other. In her last letter, she told me that she’s already been through one entire notebook, and I wrote back telling her the same. It is lovely to write to her so often, even though I would prefer to simply be beside her on all of her cases.

“Well, they’re not… proper, Amina!” says the second girl, Laura, because Florrie is quite enamoured with Amina and can only stare.

On the trail of a scandalous relationship, Kitty says, “You mean that some girls have some visitors that are common boys? From the village?”

Regaining her voice, Florrie says, “No! They’re both perfectly rich, like all of us. Well, they have decent clothes. Only… well, one of them’s dark, and the other one’s foreign!”

Kitty bursts out laughing. “No  _ way _ !” she says in disbelief, turning back into the dorm to grin at us.

All I can feel is my heart hammering in my chest and all of Alexander’s romantic comments from his letters roaring in my ear like the waves on Saltings beach.

Amina is in stitches too, while Beanie puts down her book and says, “Come on, you two! Go and see them!”

“Wouldn’t do to seem too eager,” Lavinia replies, and Beanie leaps onto her bed and pulls at her jumper in protest. We’re all in mufti, ready to leave, and I have been looking forward to an Easter spent in London with Daisy and seeing Amina as often as her governess allows. This has truly, as Lavinia said Amina’s beautiful new clothes would do to Daisy, knocked me for six.

I am already halfway out of the door.

* * *

I stop at the top of the stairs to fix my hair and my dress, and I can hear a familiar voice on a familiar tirade about an all-too-familiar thing: discrimination. To my surprise, Alexander is shouting right alongside him. Although I can’t hear much, I know that Alexander is not fighting for himself. As per usual, he’s fighting for George.

I’m still debating on how to break it up when Lavinia rushes up to my side. “What’s going on?” she asks.

I gesture down the stairs. “Fighting. Matron has… irritated George.”

“That’s not hard to do, in fairness.”

With a fond sigh, I say, “No.”

“OI, IDIOTS!” Lavinia shouts, taking the stairs two at a time.

George lights up at once. “Lavinia!” He rushes past Matron and to her side, grasping her hands.

I take the stairs slowly, hardly able to bear seeing Alexander so soon. It feels as if I should not have such nice and kind things, despite Daisy telling me that I deserve it and more. In the end, Daisy’s voice in my head — “Hurry up, Watson!” — wins over my nerves, and I move faster and faster until Alexander, at the door and apologising to Matron, sees me and his face breaks into an enormous grin.

“HAZEL!” He bolts across the hall and pulls me into his arms, and I am pressed against his chest and I can hardly breathe.

When he lets go of me, he kisses me. “How do you like the surprise?”

“I thought that you were done with surprising me on holidays,” I say, and he doesn’t let go of my hands. I am so happy that I shake with laughter slightly inside, and his face is alight with the same look that I am sure is on mine.

His eyes are bright and mischievous, and there’s something in them that I sometimes see in Daisy’s eyes when she looks at Amina. “We practically planned it at Christmas, Hazel.”

* * *

Amina greets them both joyfully, kissing their cheeks and shaking their hands. George teases her about having one-upped her with surprises, while Alexander asks if she hugs boys, and then gives her a very warm one when she declares, “It’s a case-by-case thing, but I suppose that I’ll hug you.” Kitty is rather embarrassed to see Alexander but Beanie is pleased, and she hugs both of them — even George, who looks suitably startled.

We head away from Deepdean in high spirits, especially after George tells us that Daisy will be meeting us there. Both of them are dressed up for the occasion, rather nice hats and ties, George wearing a waistcoat and Alexander bearing a wristwatch. Lavinia doesn’t walk on George’s arm for long, as he refuses to tell her anymore about Cambridge that what he deems necessary. She comes to stand at my side, asking me to tell her all about the city where I spent the Christmas before last.

After I tell her all that I can remember about the place without going into rattling off alibis and motives, she seems satisfied. With a laugh, she says, “My folks will throw a glorious fit about this! I must go and buy some stamps so that I can write a letter to them on the train. It’ll be marvellous. And… well, Patricia will worry, and I suppose she’s decent. I ought to tell her why I won’t be home for the holidays.”

George tells her to catch up with us and gives her the open sort of loving smile that I have become used to all my friends dealing to each other. Then Alexander says, “George!”

It’s in a whisper, one I’m not supposed to hear. I am not supposed to listen, but I do. “Yes?”

“You know how you mentioned the money?”

“It’s not like I can withdraw from the bank. My parents survey my bank account and they won’t be pleased to know that I’ll be getting married.”

“The funny thing is that a marriage so young is a dream come true for  _ her _ parents.”

George snorts. “True. But that’s beside the point; what were you saying?”

“I’ve quite a bit of paper money. My grandmother is generous, and my father is trying to convince me into the family business monetarily. If you’re really serious about buying that ring and proposing properly…”

“You’ll help?”

“Of course!” Alexander says, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “I have no reason not to. It’s not like you’re tying her down, marriage is more or less just a bit of paper to say that you’re together. If she wanted to… I don’t know, go off to university like Hazel wants to do, you wouldn’t stop her.”

“Of course I wouldn’t!”

I can almost hear Alexander fondly rolling his eyes. “Then I have no objection to helping you.”

As I have been holding my breath so tensely, trying not to make a sound as listen, I burst out into surprising coughs. “Are you okay, Hazel?” Alexander asks in a breathless rush, coming to my side and putting a hand on my shoulder.

“Fine!” I manage, and then I grin at him. “I breathed wrong, apparently.”

George chuckles and then says, “You heard that, didn’t you? About Lavinia?”

“You could tell?” I ask. I could lie but it didn’t feel right, not to my friend about something so significant. “Sorry for listening?”

“Don’t be sorry!” He brushes back a loose strand of hair and laughs. “Just… don’t tell Lavinia.”

I nod and the three of us exchange a secret smile, and I try not to burst into giddy giggles when Lavinia comes down the road towards us, stamps in hand and waving her hat. Alexander nods to George and the smitten expression on his face, and we share a particular look only meant for us.

I do hope that they’ll let me tell Daisy about this because I don’t think I could possibly keep this a secret from her.


End file.
